HOLY TRINITY OLD CHURCH , THE CHURCHES CONSERVATION TRUST The Churches Conservation Trust is the There are some 340 Trust churches scattered leading charity that cares for and widely through the length and breadth of , in town and country, ranging from preserves English churches of historic, charmingly simple buildings in lovely settings architectural or archaeological to others of great richness and splendour; importance that are no longer needed for some are hard to find, all are worth the effort. regular worship. It promotes public Many of the churches are open all year round, enjoyment of them and their use as an others have keyholders nearby; all are free. A notice regarding opening arrangements or educational and community resource. keyholders will normally be found near the Whatever the condition of the church when door. Otherwise, such information can be the Trust takes it over its aims are, first and obtained direct from the Trust during office foremost, to put the building and its contents hours or from the website into a sound and secure condition as speedily www.visitchurches.org.uk. as possible. Then the church is repaired so that Visitors are most welcome and we hope this it is welcoming to visitors and those who attend guidebook will encourage you to explore these the public events or occasional services that wonderful buildings. may be held there (Trust churches are still consecrated). Our objective is to keep it intact © The Churches Conservation Trust 2007 for the benefit of present and future generations, for local people and visitors alike to behold and enjoy.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The Trust is grateful to the late Mr Kenneth Smith CMG and Mr Cyril Kay who provided material for this guide. 1 West Smithfield London EC1A 9EE Front cover: Exterior from the north-west (Christopher Dalton) Tel: 020 7213 0660 Fax: 020 7213 0678 Email: [email protected] Back cover: Detail of the reredos (Christopher Dalton) £1.00 www.visitchurches.org.uk Registered Charity No. 258612 Spring 2007 The reredos, with pediment and urn, Bothenhampton, Dorset incorporates the Creed, Commandments and the Lord’s Prayer, all the lettering of which was HOLY TRINITY OLD CHURCH carefully restored in 1974. The floor is paved with square slabs of grey slate and white marble. by Kenneth Smith At the west end of the chancel is a blocked door, which formerly gave access through the thickened north wall to the rood screen that HISTORY would have spanned the arch between the Bothenhampton (formerly often spelt, and sometimes still chancel and the now-vanished nave. pronounced, Baunton, and meaning ‘village of the dwellers in the The font, with its circular bowl and splayed valley’) was linked throughout the Middle Ages with the nearby underside, probably dates from the first parish of Loders, where in the 13th century there was a Priory founding of a chapel on this site, and is belonging to the Abbey of St Mary, Montburgh, in Normandy. 13th century or earlier. Bothenhampton church was a chapel-of-ease to the Priory. In 1414 the Priory of Loders, along with other ‘alien priories’, was suppressed, The tower was built in the 15th century and is and its lands, including those at Bothenhampton, were transferred of two stages, with embattled parapet and to the great nunnery of Syon near Twickenham. The link with gargoyles. The single 19th-century bell is by Loders survived the dissolution of the monasteries in 1539 by 300 Barwell of Birmingham. years. Births and deaths were registered at Loders until 1733. In that The roof of the chancel consists of stone tiles year the exact status of Bothenhampton church was in doubt and on heavy oak rafters. the Bishop of Bristol demanded of the villagers that they dig for Exterior from the east human remains before granting them a licence to continue burials in The churchyard has some pleasing chest tombs (Christopher Dalton) the chapel yard. Bothenhampton was joined to in 1927. of the 18th and 19th centuries and some characteristic headstones incorporating the weeping willow motif, popular throughout the 19th century. One such stands near the gate to the churchyard and its inscription reads: Thomas Roots Jarvis Interior looking east (Christopher Dalton) The font (Christopher Dalton) Drowned by the stranding of In the 1880s the parishioners decided that their A substantial programme of repairs was carried the Ship Dessert Flower of THE NEW CHURCH church was too decayed and too small, and out on behalf of the Trust by E Bailey and Sons Liverpool on the Long Bank off The new church of Holy Trinity stands at the secured a faculty to demolish most of the old (Beaminster) Ltd under the direction of Wexford on the 4th March 1864 western edge of the old village, with its church and to build a new and larger one half a Mr Kenneth Wiltshire, architect, and in 1975 attractive high pavement. It was designed by mile (0.8 km) away, The foundation stone was the Trust was awarded a Certificate of He sunk no human power his life could save E S Prior, with W H Lethaby, a founder of the laid in 1887 and the new church consecrated in Commendation for the conservation work to No hand could snatch him from his watery grave Art Workers’ Guild, and the latter contributed 1890. All that remains of the old church is the the building, under the scheme of Awards which the altar frontal in gesso (usually concealed by chancel and the two-stage tower and part of the was administered in connection with European A grave indeed he little thought to find an altar cloth). Prior was an original, even north-west corner of the nave wall. For some Architectural Heritage Year. When England and his friends he left behind. eccentric, architect and his concern for texture time the chancel was used as a mortuary chapel is here well shown in his use of local ‘forest From the eastern boundary of the churchyard as the churchyard remained in use for burials. THE CHURCH marble’ and blue stone. The most notable there is a fine view stretching across unspoilt However, in 1971 the old church, which had The chancel was probably built in the 14th feature is the construction of the nave which is country towards Shipton Gorge and, westwards, long been out of regular use and was in need of century and the arch connecting it to the tower spanned by three great transverse arches. to the hills that encircle . extensive repair, was declared formally redundant, is of this date. The walls are of local rubble. Nearly 20 years later Prior was to use the same and in the following year it passed into the care The principal feature of interest is the early- feature in the building of St Andrew’s, Roker, of the Redundant Churches Fund (now The 18th-century sanctuary, with oaken altar rails, County Durham. Churches Conservation Trust) for preservation. dado and reredos all designed as a single unit.